


What Selina Said

by makemelovely



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: The Animated Series
Genre: Angst, Based on a song, F/F, F/M, Songfic, minor Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 03:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8873761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makemelovely/pseuds/makemelovely
Summary: Bruce Wayne's life is changed forever but all he can think of are those words Selina said last Autumn.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The song is What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie. There are a few minor changes with the lyrics to fit the story better. I don't own the song, Batman, or the characters.

_and it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time_

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce smiled at the sound of his fiancée's voice, imagining the raven haired beauty he would be marrying in a week. "Sweetheart," Bruce grinned as Selina immediately began protesting the nickname. "I will pick up some hot chocolate on the way home." Bruce chuckled as Selina purred with delight. "I shall see you when I get home." Bruce promised.

"Okay, Bruce. I'll see you-" A resounding thud cut Selina off, and Bruce could faintly hear her shriek. Bruce's stomach sank into a pit of ice cold numbness.

"Selina?" He whispered into the phone, knowing that his fiancée's voice wouldn't reply in that teasing way of hers. All Bruce could think was that he needed more time to save Selina. Unfortunately, that was the one thing he couldn't have. It was when Bruce was running the events through his mind that he recalled a quiet hysterical laughter, just far away to make out but not close enough to tell for sure who it belonged to.

* * *

 

_as I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and too much crime_

* * *

 

Bruce stared at the cold metal floor, tapping his fingers on his knee. A nervous tick he had picked up around Selina what with her hungry eyes following him around.

"Brucie!" Harleen Quinzel or Harley Quinn sobbed, flinging herself into Bruce's arms. She had been friends with Selina for years and the accident was sure to break her heart.

"Bruce." Pamela Isley said crisply, Her eyes looked shiny but that could have been because of the lighting. It was kind of funny because Bruce knew it wasn't the lighting. He would never say anything about it, though. Bruce looked around at the hospital, his nose wrinkling at what he saw. Street thugs, common criminals, murderers, and thieves. Selina shouldn't be surrounded by these people while recovering. Who knew what they would do to get the woman who was to be marrying Bruce Wayne next week.

* * *

 

  _and I rationed my breaths as I said to myself that I'd already taken too much today_

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce shifted uncomfortably in the plastic hospital chair, shifting Harley who lay like a limp doll in his arms. She had cried herself to sleep earlier, her sobs racking her petite body violently. His stomach clenched uncomfortably, longing to be home with his fiancée. He could picture her dressed in jeans and a light gray-white sweater, curling against him. Her eyes were the prettiest shade of blue and her black hair fell to her shoulder blades. Bruce just wanted to go back to yesterday where he could wake up with the love of his life,

"You can come see her now." Bruce blinked, uncertain. When had the nurse come? How long had it been since that awful moment when Selina was hit by that vehicle?

 

* * *

  
  


_as each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me_

 

* * *

 

Bruce clutched Selina's hand, staring at her closed eyes and pale skin. She looked sick and the paper gown she was wearing didn't help. Bruce sucked in a deep breath as he watched her, silently begging her to open her eyes and smile at him. He tried to convince himself that she would be up soon. She would be awake and alive again. Soon. A crimson spot stood out against the paper gown, starting out the size of a quarter and rapidly growing bigger. Bruce opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

 

* * *

 

 

_away from me_

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce felt her pulse fade away, and he tore his eyes from the blood that was leaving her body. The LCD slowly went down, one heart beat at a time. It dropped and dropped, steadily declining. Bruce could feel her pulse getting weaker and weaker, barely beating. "Help." He whispered, feeling as if the blood was leaving his body as the blood was leaving Selina's.

"Get out of the way!" A doctor screamed, shoving Bruce away. The doctor's eyes were lit with panic and fear.

 

* * *

 

 

_amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines in a place where we only say goodbye_

 

* * *

 

 

Selina's heart stopped. Bruce couldn't breath. His fingers were still wrapped around her wrist. No pulse.

"Get the AED!" The doctor shouted at a nurse, panic making them move faster.

Tick tock, the mouse ran up the clock. Selina always followed the mouse.

The clock struck one, the mouse ran down. Selina did not.

Bruce was swept outside by a nurse with a grim twist of the lips and a sympathetic glint in her eyes.

 

* * *

 

  _it stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds_

* * *

 

 

Bruce collapsed into the chair, his eyes on the clock. Hickory dickory dock.

Harley and Pam were out getting food and coffee (or a salad for Pam with a water, and Harley would get a huge burger with fries and a milkshake along with a coke).

Bruce laid his head in his hands, unable to stop the tears falling from his eyes. It was if Selina were the cure to his disease but Selina was gone and the sickness was spreading through his veins. Killing him slowly, and quickly, and not fast enough, and too fast. Nothing was right but everything was wrong.

 

* * *

 

 

_but I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all_

 

* * *

 

 

"We're back." Harley chirped, a wide clown like smile painted on her face despite the tears leaking from her eyes.

Bruce rubbed his eyes angrily, a million curses on his tongue but none of them made it past his lips. Instead he gave them a watery smile and grabbed a fry from the container Harley sat in front of him. "Thanks." Bruce nodded his thanks. He bit into the fry and spit it out, the taste burning his tongue as if it was hot metal. "I'm not hungry." Bruce mumbled and shoved the container to Harley, who took them with a tearfully greedy smile.

"Have a tomato." Pamela said, her tone vaguely resembling kindness despite the rough way the words left her mouth. She had always been prickly.

Bruce took it numbly, his hand feeling like it weighed nothing but also like it held the weight of the world.

 

* * *

 

 _and I looked around at all the eyes on the ground as the TV entertained itself_  

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce took to looking at the other people in the waiting room, his heart beating in time with every breath he took. One girl was young, too young to be here. Her bright red hair was plaited down her back in two plaits and she looked so sad. It hurt.

 

* * *

 

_cause there's no comfort in the waiting room. just nervous pacers bracing for bad news_

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce stood up abruptly, swinging long legs to stand up. Harley jumped in surprise at the sudden movement but Pam looked mildly alarmed. "Bruce?" They asked together, Harley's high pitched voice clashing with Pam's soft spoken tone.

"I can't sit still!" Bruce glared at his white sneakers, glaring at them as though they were the cause of his whole world changing. He began to pace and soon enough Harley stood up, causing Pamela to join them. They paced back and forth, like angry tigers locked in a cage.

* * *

 

 _and then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads_  

 

* * *

 

 

She walks over to Bruce, Pamela, and Harley. "I am so sorry." She continues to talk but Bruce only hears bits and pieces. He is too busy sinking onto the floor. Bruce thinks that maybe he's crying but he can't feel anything.

"Too much blood loss."

"We did the best we could."

"I am so sorry for your loss."

 

* * *

 

 

_but I'm thinking of what Selina said. That "love is watching someone die."_

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce thought back to last Autumn when they visited a third grade classroom. One of the girls (a tall thing with hair dark brown that fell to her waist with matching brown eyes) had asked Selina what love is.

Selina had gotten a faraway look in her eyes and had said, "Love is watching someone die."

The words made some of the other kids confused or a little disoriented but the girl who asked the question simply nodded, as if she had suspected she would receive that answer all along. Bruce hadn't understood then, not really. Now he understood, though. He wished he didn't understand.

 

* * *

 

 

_so who's gonna watch you die?_

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce wanted to be with Selina in her final moments. It seems that Bruce was the mouse. One o'clock was death and Selina followed him. Except Bruce always escapes death. Selina is not as fortunate.

Hickory dickory dock.


End file.
